One week before the still-doesn't-have-an-official-name-yet "Koch-con invitational". Some people had to pass this week for honey-do stuff so they could make it next week. We still had a decent turnout though.

One could argue that the players who had played before were too busy hamstringing each other to give the new players a challenge. Ross was particularly frustrated on that point.

I was in the 3rd seat and started with the typical blocking of the action roads Mike and 'tides started on. I continued the trend on my 2nd turn taking the last spot on roads Dave and Ross took. I foolishly used my disk to block Ross. He was going after the book action. He decided to just ignore that part of the board to tie up my disk. I did hardly anything with my infrastructure. I didn't get a 3rd action until 3/4 of the way through the game and only upgraded my color once and maybe my book action once to get another disk. I grabbed some of the 1pt cities in the corners in the hopes of getting some recurring points, but few people went after keys and no one went after end game bonus point guys. I started going after dinner plates while trying to create a network. Kept getting sucky bonus actions. My final standing was better than I thought it would be though with 6 plates and a 6 network city.

'tides created a massive network along the north of the board, often getting 2pt per completed route whenever someone upgraded a bag or color. I triggered the game end giving him his 20th point.

Mike maxed out his bag and color and had a decent network with a 2 key. He was a lot closer to first than expected.

Mike had to have cheated somehow, we just can't prove it. I suspect he rigged his special scoring phone app to automatically add 20 points to his score.

Mike easily had the best hand of cards, most of which worked on the "take 1 grain space". For the 2nd half of the game, whenever he placed a worker there he got 5 grain, 1 veggie, and plows 1 field (while giving me and Ross a grain). It was a bit ridiculous. He was also the only player to have a stone house and 0 unused spaces. His final action was to build a well which also blocked me from building a basket maker and grabbing the stock piled reed for points. He did something similar that last time he sat on my right.

With the help of a ladder, I was able to build 3 rooms in one action, but it was after Mike built 2 rooms. I was blocked from taking the family growth action until the 11-12th round. I jumped from 2 actions to 4, but it was far too late at that point. I built a fireplace early and had unopposed access to most of the animals for half the game.

Ross creamed us with an early harbor shipping strategy. He was only producing 3 goods (corn, sugar, indigo?) but was getting 7 points for them when he took captain. Both Dave and Ross built early construction huts and the quarries disappeared quickly. I built a small market, small warehouse, factory, coffee, tobacco, indigo, guild hall and city hall. I thought I could get a 3rd big building, but I think Ross did something to give Dave the coins he needed to buy it before I could.